Stephanie left to pick up Regina from work, leaving me alone with Mika. I sat on the couch in one corner, half-curled up, watching her a bit awkwardly as she sat on the arm of the other couch, staring up at the ceiling fan, her head moving slightly in a circle as she focused on a particular point. I needed to do something to break the silence, I was feeling increasingly awkward. She was a slave, and also I had just licked up her pussy juices off of Stephanie’s cock. It would be nice if we could get along.

“...Hi.”

“Hi,” she responded immediately, looking back down to me, “why don’t we escape together, now that we’re in the same situation?”

I considered this for a moment.

“...what’re our odds on that, exactly?”

“Hard to say. The most successful escapees are just reported as missing… but that’s true for people who get kidnapped or die in the wilderness somewhere, too.”

“Yeah... you’re not exactly painting an appealing picture here…?”

Mika smirked. “Why would I? If you chicken out halfway, there’s no point. I’m willing to risk my life for my freedom... are you?”

I considered this for a long moment, and then shook my head. “No, I really wanna live.”

She let out little snort from her nose. “Are you going to help me escape now?”

“No... the punishments for future pets doing crimes like that is really bad.”

“Yeah, I guess if you were brave, you’d have helped me escape before. Or you’d escape with me now.”

I glared up at her, and opened my mouth, ready to unleash some bile… but she was right, wasn’t she? My shoulders slumped. “...sorry….”

She glared down at me, but seeing me look so pathetic, shrugged a little, and slid down into the corner opposite me, staring at the floor now. “It’s okay.”

We sat in silence for a bit, and I started to think about if my owner would let me watch shows I wanted to… I’d better read and watch everything I had been procrastinating on.

“If I was brave, I would’ve killed Stephanie and Regina, and escaped alone.”

I blinked, looked over to her, it taking me a moment to place her extremely casual words, and a chill ran down my spine.

“What, do you think that’s wrong? Killing the people who imprison and rape you?”

I opened my mouth, and closed it again.

“I… guess not… just didn’t expect that from you.”

“I have like, a thousand plans on how to kill both of them. Some of them a little fantastical, but mostly wildly practical.” She smiled at me. “Tell them if you want, I think they already know.”

I did not want to be having this conversation, but I couldn’t just sit here in silence after that.

“...why don’t you, then?”

She blinked, tilted her head a bit to one side.

“Well, my life would suck if it failed, wouldn’t it? And… Regina and Stephanie bought me because I begged them to. That place really sucks. That’s the only reason I’m helping you, even though you’re a coward without any sense of morality or spine.”

“Yeah... I’m pretty sure whatever punishment you’d have for murdering them would be even worse, though.”

“Yeah.”

We sat in silence for a bit, and Mika tilted her head a bit to one side, leaning towards me.

“Want to make out?” I flushed and glanced over to her, confused.

“I thought you hated me?”

“Oh, absolutely.”

“Then…?”

She shrugged. “No one is ever here when they aren’t. It’s the first time I can meaningfully consent to intimate activity, in like, forever.”

“...oh.” I thought about it for a moment. “Yeah, Mika, I don’t think I’m really comfortable with that. We’ve just been talking about how you hate me, and fantasize about murdering my friends… like, for semi-valid reasons, as far as murdering people goes, don’t get me wrong… but I’m not the sort of person who gets turned on by consensual sex with someone who hates me.“

“Ah.” Mika was silent for a little while. “...do you want me to rape you?”

I stared at her in disbelief.

She shrugged, unshaken. “Okay, seems like that’s a no–- just thought I’d check.”

“It’s not even rape if I say you can, and also… no. I don’t really want to be raped.”

“Well, you will be. Every day of your life, potentially.”

I swallowed. After a moment, I nodded.

“Pretty sure I could rape you right now. You aren’t the sort of girl who meaningfully fights back. I’d be punished, of course… but right now, I just want someone who kisses me because they want to kiss me.”

I was distinctly uncomfortable with this line of thought, despite her philosophical tone on it, but relaxed a little as she switched to talking about wanting consensual kissing. “I’d rather kiss than be raped, I guess.”

She sighed at my response. “That is not even in the galaxy of the same thing, Phoebe.”

We sat in silence for a bit, two people who had been fucked over by the system. I didn’t know how Mika became a pet, if it was for losing a lottery like me, or some sort of crime, but I didn’t really want to ask at the moment. She looked… very small. Not that she was a large girl to begin with, but she just looked so alone.

No one was on her side, and probably never would be.

I certainly couldn’t offer to support her in any meaningful way, but….

“Do you want to cuddle?” Mika blinked, and looked over at me, surprised.

“You really want to?”

“Yeah, I’m feeling kinda lonely.” Thinking about how it must be to be like you, and how that will soon be my life, I didn’t say.

Mika slowly crawled across the coach towards me, and then let her side fall against mine with a soft thump. I wrapped my arm around her, and she slowly let out her breath... closed her eyes... relaxed against me.... “This is nice.”

I smiled a little, and we sat in a more peaceful silence. I felt the warmth of her body against mine, listened to her soft breathing as she stared into space. I glanced over to her to see a slight smile on her face. With her mouth shut, she was actually pretty cute. Just as I was thinking that, her pink lips parted as she started to speak.

“...Do you mind if I touch myself while you hold me?”

I stared for a long moment, and she shook her head. “Nevermind.”

“No, I just… wasn’t expecting that.” I thought for a moment. I might be in her exact position someday, and maybe the oxytocin from cumming while we snuggled would help her bond with me more. Now, normally I’d say entering a sexual relationship with a pet who your neighbors own was a questionable decision… but hey. No matter what terrible relationship choices I made, I’d be out of here in three months. “Yeah, go ahead.”

“Thanks.” Without a moment of hesitation, she flipped up her short skirt and started rubbing herself, her other hand groping her breast, moaning softly as she wiggled a little closer against me. I held her snug against me. As she kept moaning and panting and squirming against me, I started to get a little wet myself, and was almost tempted to do something with my other hand, be it with her body or mine… but no. I didn’t want her to see me as attracted to her, even if I was.

And she wasn’t attracted to me, she just wanted someone, anyone, she could trust not to take advantage of her. So I wouldn’t take advantage of her.

She kept fingering herself as she cuddled up against me, cumming again and again as the air was filled with the smell of her sex, and I tried to distract myself despite the fact that this very hot girl was fingering herself practically in my lap.

Over time, I was becoming some mixture of horny and just plain bored, as I restrained myself from doing anything to her, but also couldn’t really do any other activity.

I recalled Regina saying “You can just pin her down and she’ll like it, at least physically”, or something like that, and the temptation got a bit stronger… but no. I didn’t like Mika at all, but she was finally placing her trust in me, at least, and no way I was going to let something like horniness or boredom get in the way of that.

It seemed like she’d just keep going and going, until we heard the footsteps in the hall, and she let her short skirt drop, lifting her hand up to lick her hand clean of her juices.

“Yeah, pizza is good with me.” Regina’s voice was muffled through the door before she opened it, and looked over at me and Stephanie on the couch, blinked, sniffed the air, and laughed.

“No, no, sorry, Phoebe… I know it’s tough news, just uh, didn’t expect to come back to this.”

“We’re trying to call her Princess,” noted Stephanie, as she came in with a few bags of groceries in her arms.

“Okay. Princess, Mika-- pizza sound okay for dinner for you tonight?”

“Um, yeah, fine by me.” I was blushing and looking at the floor.

Mika nodded languidly against my shoulder, seemingly entirely unembarrassed that she had just been fingering herself for what must have been at least an hour, if not more… well, I guess she had probably done more sexual things with these two. I usually tried not to imagine what their sex life was like, out of some vague sense of protecting their privacy.

“Hey, it’s okay, Princess… you’ll make a cute pet….” Regina had moved closer to me while I was ruminating, and started petting my head. Her voice was kinda sympathetic, in a lazy and amused sort of way. She tended to keep up that amused detachment, I think partially so the darkness of the world wouldn’t hit her too hard. “Heck, I’d keep you myself if I could afford it.”

“We can’t afford it,” Stephanie emphasized from the adjoining kitchenette. “We could barely afford Mika, and she was at a discount.”

“I know… but just look at that adorable blush… don’t you want to see her squirming and begging for pleasure?” Just a moment ago, when talking to me, it sounded like she was talking to me as a friend, but now when she talked to Stephanie, it was like she was talking about an animal. She scratched under my chin as I made little incoherent sounds.

“Well, you’ll at least see that much,” Stephanie reassured her.

“Can Phoebe sleep in my bed tonight?” asked Mika suddenly.

“Call her Princess.”

“I’m not calling her Princess,” Mika replied stubbornly.

Stephanie looked over from the kitchen, somewhere between annoyed and pleased. “Mika, it was literally your idea to give her a different name. Don’t mess with her training,”

"...okay, yeah, sure, fine… can Princess sleep in my bed tonight?”

Regina considered this a moment, then nodded. “That or the couch, her choice.”

“I don’t mind sleeping on your bed,” I noted.

Mika rolled her eyes. “You’re such a suck-up little bitch, surprised you didn’t volunteer to become a pet.” She didn’t move away from me, though.

Stephanie walked over from the kitchenette, and stared down at Mika. “Politeness, Mika… are you trying to get in trouble?” I cleared my throat-- this is the closest I had ever felt to Mika, so I thought I should stand up for her.

“Um, hey, I’m sure--” Stephanie put her index finger against my lips, shutting me up, more out of surprise more than anything.

“Hey, did I ask for your opinion?” Her tone of voice was brusque.

I opened my mouth, then closed it, glaring up at Stephanie in surprise and hurt-- she had never spoken to me like that before.

Stephanie put a hand to the side of her mouth, and stage whispered, “I’m trying to train you how to be a pet, remember?” I blinked, eyes still a bit teary. Yeah, she was just trying to help.

“Oh! Oh, yeah, sorry. Um, no, you didn’t ask for my opinion, sorry.” I bowed my head a little.

“Mistress,” said Regina. My mind was focused on obedience now, and I took a deep breath.

“Sorry, Mistress.” It’s not like I said it at full volume, but I said it.

Regina and Stephanie smiled at each other, and then started covering my head in pets while they cooed over me and called me a good girl and precious pet and other saccharinely sweet things like that, most of which alliterated for some reason. Maybe they were playing word games with each other, but I was kind of too flustered by all of the touching and praise to notice.

Mika rolled her eyes and pulled away from us, walking over into the kitchen to finish putting the groceries away.